Barack Obama Pens a Powerful New Feminist Op-Ed in Glamour Magazine

Barack Obama celebrated his 55th birthday today, the same day his impassioned op-ed about feminism for Glamour magazine was released. Yes, you read that correctly. The president of the United States took to the popular fashion and beauty magazine to boldly declare himself a feminist yet again, unleashing a thoughtful diatribe against the rigid, outdated gender stereotypes that continue to bind us all.

"As far as we've come, all too often we are still boxed in by stereotypes about how men and women should behave," wrote Obama. "In fact, gender stereotypes affect all of us, regardless of our gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation."

After paying tribute to how far we've come as a nation, from securing women the right to vote in 1920 to the sheer amount of women in the workforce today, Obama turned to the mirror standing in front of us all: "The most important change may be the toughest of all—and that's changing ourselves."

"We need to break through these limitations. We need to keep changing the attitude that raises our girls to be demure and our boys to be assertive, that criticizes our daughters for speaking out and our sons for shedding a tear," he wrote. "We need to keep changing the attitude that punishes women for their sexuality and rewards men for theirs."